KHARTOUM — Sudan marked the arrival of 24,944 Ethiopian refugees to its lands due escalating fighting in Tigray region on Sunday.

The Commissioner of Refugees Abdullah Suleiman and Assistant Representative of the High Commissioner for Refugees in Sudan Jan Hence Mann held a meeting with officials at the Ministry of Health in El-Gedaref, in which they discussed support for refugees and the steps required to meet the increase in their numbers, said Sudan News Agency.

Mann explained that the top priority is to provide shelter, food and water to refugees and to transfer them to safe areas far from the borders, it added.

The UNHCR is now working to establish camps where all the necessities of life are available and the international community must urgently provide support for refugees fleeing the war, he added.

The UN warned earlier over the thousands of Ethiopians crossing the border and intensification of military operations inside Ethiopia, the numbers of people fleeing from it are expected to increase and are in need of asylum, he noted.

However, the situation between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Front has worsened in recent weeks, prompting the two sides to declare war.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an attack on the Tigray People's Liberation Front after he accused it of attacking the headquarters of the Federal Forces in the Tigray region in the north of the country. — KUNA